Nishida Prize

Yuki Kimura

Commendation

Experimental study of nucleation process of cosmic dust

A list of five major papers

  • S. Ishizuka, Y. Kimura*, I. Sakon, H. Kimura, T. Yamazaki, S. Takeuchi, Y. Inatomi, Sounding-rocket microgravity experiments on alumina dust, Nature Communications, 9 (2018) 3820 (6pp). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06359-y
  • Y. Kimura,* K. K. Tanaka, T. Nozawa, S. Takeuchi, Y. Inatomi, Pure iron grains are rare in the universe, Science Advances, 3 (2017) e1601992. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601992
  • S. Ishizuka, Y. Kimura*, I. Sakon, In- situ infrared measurements of free-flying silicate during condensation in the laboratory, The Astrophysical Journal, 803 (2015) 88 (6pp).
  • Y. Kimura*, T. Sato, N. Nakamura, J. Nozawa, T. Nakamura, K. Tsukamoto, K. Yamamoto, Vortex magnetic structure in framboidal magnetite reveals existence of water droplets in an ancient asteroid, Nature Communications, 4 (2013) 2649. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3649.
  • Y. Kimura, J. A. Nuth III, S. Chakraborty, M. H. Thiemens, Non-Mass-Dependent Oxygen Isotopic Fractionation in Smokes Produced in an Electrical Discharge, Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 42 (2007) 1429-1439.”

Major achievements

Yuki Kimura carried out nanoparticle synthesis and physical property measurement using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, etc. under the supervision of the late Prof. Chihiro Kaito in Ritsumeikan University, and contributed to the understanding of the mechanism of nucleation, growth, transformation and crystallization of ultrafine particles. Based on the advanced experimental techniques acquired during this period and free and creative ideas that are not bound by specialized fields, he is working on reproduction experiments of the production process of ultrafine particles in outer space, which had been rarely conducted until then, and is giving great restrictions to interpretation of astronomical observation results. Combining many unique analytical and experimental methods, the synthesis of nanoparticles exhibiting mass-independent oxygen isotope fractionation, in situ observation of the nucleation process that solved the large gap between theory and observation, and the origin of metal iron particle deficiency in space by microgravity experiments using a sounding rocket were the fruits of Dr. Kimura’s unified understanding of the initial crystallization process by new disciplines “astronanomineralogy” that combine nano-domain science and crystal growth science, and have been highly evaluated both in Japan and overseas.